Update 5/1/11 Setbacks Changing Gears

We wanted to test
drive the car this weekend but we had many setbacks. It was
a beautiful day and I didin't want to show up on Sunday either.

Saturday,
April 30, Shannon cut his fingers on the table saw. He'll recover
but he's out of commission for a few days.

We realized the PC needs
40 sq.ft of floats. 20 sq.ft in the rear, behind the center of gravity.
This means no propellor. Maybe the prop can be used next year with
the flotation spheres.

So we are making paddles
for the wheels. We need 18 of them.

Getting the car out of
the water will be very difficult with barge like floats. It weighs
1400 lbs. I doubt we could even pull it out with a rope.

The tread is shown at
right. It is very time consumming to install.

We cut off the steering
device we had and are switching to a recumbent style lever on the
side of the seat. this is more complex to install but there is no
room for a wheel when peddling. Your knees are in the way unless
the wheel is almost over your head. This was a setback.

Click the
photo for a larger picture of how the brakes work. We'll have to
take a video so you can see it working. Robert designed and made
this. It seems to work very well. We have enormous braking power
now.

The derailleurs are finicky.
Two of the bottom brackets are different than the others and the
derailleurs require different angles and setups. I will have to
cut off the posts and reweld them and then route the cables and
adjust everything. .

Next
weekend, May 8th, we wanted to test the floatation. But unless I can
find a way to work on it full time for the next week the water test
will have to be put off perhaps until the big race in three weeks.
Maker's fair is in two weeks.